Solar Media, the publisher of PV Tech, is launching a campaign to give the UK solar industry a platform to have its voice heard in the wake of dramatic Government proposals to cut support for the technology.

The Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy (Absolar) has signed an agreement with the Brazilian Agency for Export and Investment Promotion (Apex-Brazil) to partner on attracting more foreign investment into the domestic solar industry.

The largest US PV installer SolarCity is beginning to ramp expenditure in R&D and equipment purchases ahead of the planned completion and ramp of its 1GW integrated PV manufacturing plant in Buffalo, New York.

Reports that senior politicians in the Czech Republic want to see ground mounted solar “disappear” are “more proof that the Czech Republic is a complete banana republic when it comes to energy policy“, one critic has said.

Major PV equipment supplier Meyer Burger has axed further jobs and undertaken equipment write-downs at its sapphire substrate cutting plant in Colorado Springs, US, which was initially established to meet Apple’s demand for sapphire screens for its mobile phones through a partnership with GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT).

Now that the PV industry has unquestionably entered a new growth phase, all eyes are on which technologies will win through into the mainstream of PV manufacturing. PERC, n-type, p-type bifacial, heterojunction – all have become familiar terms in the ever-growing constellation of solar cell technologies. The question is which will offer manufacturers what they are looking for in improving efficiencies and cutting costs.

Although the past few years have proved extremely testing for PV equipment manufacturers, falling module prices have driven solar end-market demand to previously unseen levels. That demand is now starting to be felt by manufacturers, to the extent that leading companies are starting to talk about serious capacity expansions later this year and into 2015. This means that the next 12 months will be a critical period if companies throughout the supply chain are to take full advantage of the PV industry’s next growth phase.